The Foothills Animal Shelter has halted adoptions of nearly 200 rabbits seized from an Arvada home last month after the rabbits’ owner filed an emergency motion in court.

A motion filed in Jefferson County Court Wednesday also asks a judge to stop the spaying and neutering of the rabbits, arguing that their owner, Debe Bell, would face a financial hardship if the rabbits can no longer breed.

The spaying, neutering and adoption of Bell’s rabbits will “literally make it impossible for Ms. Bell to retrieve and reconstitute her herd and its bloodlines,” her attorney, Elizabeth Kearney, argued in court documents.

Bell faces 25 counts of animal cruelty or neglect stemming from the July 21 seizure of her rabbits.

An arrest warrant released yesterday said the animals lived in “deplorable” conditions. There were 75 percent more rabbits living on Bell’s ranch than space provided for, and some of them had fur “so severely matted that they cannot urinate or defacate without extreme difficulty,” according to the warrant.

The sheriff’s office also released pictures of several rabbits seized from Bell’s home. The pictures show feces caked throughout some of the rabbits’ fur and, in some cases, in their food dishes.

Kearney said she thinks the photos unfairly represent the state of Bell’s shed. For the nearly 200 rabbits seized, she said, the sheriff’s office only released less than a dozen photos.

Kearney also argues that the matting on some of the rabbits was not Bell’s fault. In the motion filed in court, Kearney said some of the rabbits with mats “recently had arrived on her property in that condition from people trying to dispose of them, and the rabbits were destined to be used as food for the raptor center.”

Bell raised rabbits at her business, Six Bells Farm for their fur, meat and for sale as livestock. She also donated them to the zoo and to a local raptor center, according to court documents.

A hearing is scheduled in Jefferson County District Court about 9 a.m. tomorrow.

In the meantime, the rabbits will remain with Foothills Animal Shelter.

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